


chasing fire

by myarcadia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Ends Where The Series Starts, Falling In Love, Galaxy Garrison, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Langst, M/M, Pre-Canon, Rated Teen Just For Swearing I Think, klance, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24753376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myarcadia/pseuds/myarcadia
Summary: Lance is sixteen when he falls in love with his best friend. The beginnings of love edge around his heart and he is slowly comprehending how bittersweet it can be.Lance is barely on the cusp of seventeen when his best friend disappears. Distraught and bitterness cloud his mind with endless possibilities of how love could have been.Lance is eighteen years old when he sees his best friend once more. Love still simmers in his heart— dulled down by doubt— glinting with the tiniest inkling of hope.-Wherein Lance realizes you cannot choose who you love however you can choose who to love.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	1. sixteen: the sweet beginning of love

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! This is my second attempt at publishing a fic, I hope you guys like it!! This has been sitting in my drafts for quite some time and I've finally decided to publish it. Feedback would be appreciated <3

Lance is sixteen and in love. If he were to use the cheesy and cliche romance movies his sister watches as a standard, love is everything it is described to be. It is the hitch in his chest whenever that person glances over in his direction— the slightest of smiles taking his breath away. It is the butterflies in his stomach whenever he hears their soft little chuckle at something amusing. It is the euphoria and slight unsteadiness coupled with the times he walks by their side and Lance's hand slightly grazes against theirs.

But love, love is also pain.

Love is nights spent accompanied by a heavy heart and silent tears. It is stiff straightened shoulders and mantras of words he cannot seem to get himself to swallow (or perhaps deep down he hopes in vain that there is an echo of a chance for him and his love). It is fear clouding Lance’s mind of all the things that could possibly go wrong. Love is everything it is said to be, but so much more. Love has fine print, written in letters so small it is almost unrecognizable by the naked eye.

So this— this is the predicament Lance is in. Lance is sixteen years old and so deeply and desperately in love with someone. He is in love with purple eyes that shine brighter than all the stars in the sky. He is in love with the fingerless gloves eternally secured onto rough and experienced hands. He is in love with jet black, seemingly always messy, hair styled in an unexpected-but-not-ugly mullet. He is in love with his best friend. 

Lance is in love with Keith Kogane and he has absolutely no idea what to do.

Lance had not intended to fall in love. Really, the only thing he had let himself love for the past sixteen years of his life, aside from his family, was space and all the mysteries it held. But Keith— Keith is enchanting in ways Lance can barely even comprehend. Really, it was inevitable for Lance to fall for Keith. 

The day Lance met Keith was on his second day at the Galaxy Garrison. The loneliness of being away from home had just started to sink in as he laid in bed with nothing but the silence of the room to accompany him. But, just as the loneliness had sunken in, the door to his dorm room opened revealing a disheveled and roughed up looking boy. Startled by the sudden intrusion, Lance jumps into a sitting position— not so gracefully hitting his head on the ceiling while doing so. The boy gave him an odd look before dragging his belongings inside the room with a grunt.

“Hi,” Lance starts, “my name is Lance! Seems like we are roomies. Hope you do not mind that I took the top bunk.”

The boy merely grunts in acknowledgment and starts to unpack his belongings.

“What is your name, if you do not mind me asking,” Lance inquires.

Finally the boy stops what he is doing, glances at Lance and gives a curt reply.

“Keith,” he says, “Keith Kogane.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you Keith,” Lance starts. “I hope we get along well.” 

And thus, began the friendship between Lance and Keith.

-

Like most friendships, things did not quite work out smoothly between Keith and Lance at the beginning. For the most part, the two boys barely interacted. Only seeing each other during class and before going to bed did not sit well with Lance. He knew nothing about his roommate and that had to change. 

One lunch period, with a determined look in his eye, Lance headed over to the table where Keith was seated at. Once Lance is seated across from Keith, the boy gives him a look and then continues to eat his food.

“Hey my buddy, my dude, my pal,” Lance says at Keith. “I have been meaning to talk with you! We are roommates but we barely ever talk. I wanna get to know you better!”

Keith glares at him. This does not faze Lance at all. Instead he shoots Keith a smile until Keith reluctantly sighs and makes a small noise of approval.

“Sweet! So what made you apply to the Garrison,” Lance asks.

At this question, Keith seems to hesitate. However he sighs and then says, “My brother is a pilot here. I want to be with him as much as possible.” In a smaller voice Keith continues, “He’s the only family I have left.”

At this, Lance reaches out and grabs Keith’s hand that is resting on the table across from him. “It’s okay,” Lance tells him sincerely. “I know we aren’t really close but know that I am here for you. You aren’t alone because you’ve got me, the best roommate ever!”

With that, Keith lets out a small chuckle and internally hopes for the best.

-

“Keith I cannot believe you! You didn’t tell me your brother was  _ the Takashi Shirogane  _ ! I cannot believe you kept this secret from me. Because I am nice I will forgive you this once. I cannot believe though that all this time I have been hanging out with my idol’s brother. Who knew a loser like you could be related to someone as great as him,” Lance exclaims while sticking his tongue out at Keith as they walk back to their room after an endless day of classes.

Keith chuckles and replies, “If I am a loser then hanging out with me makes you a loser by association. And please quit nagging me about Shiro. Yes he is my brother. It was not a secret at all, you just never asked so I never told.”

“I hate you, you know,” Lance says with a pout. “I can never win arguments around you. You and your mind games.”

Keith smirks at this, “They aren’t mind games, you just suck at rationalizing.”

“Oh yeah,” Lance exclaims. “Then how about we race to our room? First one to the room proves he is better than the other at rationalizing.”

“You are on,” Keith tells him. “See you loser.”

At that, Keith takes off and dashes towards the direction of their rooms. Lance can only look on, dumbfounded and in awe of Keith’s childishness. He then laughs and then quickly tails after Keith.

“No fair you ass,” Lance yells after him, “you didn’t count down at all! I was not prepared.”

Both boys soon arrive at the door to their room, Keith arriving first. Lance bends down in exhaustion, head hanging as he heaves from sprinting after Keith. He then lets out a sigh of frustration at losing.

“You snooze, you lose,” Keith laughs out. He looks down upon Lance, gloating in his victory.

Lance turns his head upward to look at the boy. Gazing at Keith’s laughing figure, he cannot help but feel happy despite having lost. Hearing Keith’s rare boisterous laugh was worth every loss. 

At the back of Lance’s mind, he barely registers the ache of fondness in his heart from the sight of Keith.

-

Lance realizes he is in love in the most mundane of circumstances. He and Keith are lying down on Keith’s bunk gazing at the bottom of Lance’s bunk and talking about anything and everything. As best friends, it is easy to be with one another. Talking comes easy and that is one of the purest joys Lance has ever felt. 

Keith lets out a laugh at something ridiculous Lance says and Lance cannot help but hope that this moment never ends. He turns his head towards Keith and gazes at him— Keith too busy talking to notice. Lying there, listening to Keith’s soothing voice, Lance realizes that he is in love. He realizes that he is desperately in love with his best friend. This realization does not faze Lance. Instead, Lance prays to every god out there that the moment never ends— that he could just spend eternity lying there with Keith, basking in each other’s presence.

The realization settles in Lance’s heart and he begins to tear up. He is in love with his best friend, a love that will never be possible.

“And that is why I believe that aliens exist. There is just too much space out there for it to just be us,” Keith says as he turns to Lance for confirmation. Upon seeing the tears in Lance’s eyes, Keith reaches out and hugs him. They lie in silence, with only Lance’s sniffling to keep them company. Keith does not ask, he knows Lance will tell him when the time is right.

Lance is sixteen when he falls in love with his best friend. The beginnings of love edge around his heart and he is slowly comprehending how bittersweet it can be.


	2. seventeen: the bitter plateau of love

Lance is barely on the cusp of seventeen when Keith disappears. More accurately though, Keith’s brother, Takashi Shirogane, disappears. The reports on why the members of the expedition to Kerberos suddenly stopped sending transmissions back to the Earth were vague and nondescript. It seemed apparent to the general public that the Galaxy Garrison, too, was dumbfounded by the sudden disappearance and clear failure of the expedition. Many had taken it harshly— the Earth had lost one of its greatest pilots as well as two very intelligent astrophysicists.

The one who had taken Takashi Shirogane’s loss the hardest, however, was Keith. 

Keith hears of the news first, seeing as he was family. It takes a full day later, though, for Lance to hear the news. By that time, it was already too late— Keith had punched a high ranking officer the day before out of rage from lack of information on the disappearance of his brother. No goodbyes were said between Keith and Lance. There were no final words of parting.

Instead, Lance wakes up to an empty bunk bed beneath him.

At first, the realization that Keith had left him— no, not him, but the Galaxy Garrison— refused to sink into Lance’s mind. He could not believe that his best friend would up and leave in the middle of the night without even so much as a goodbye. He thought that their friendship was worth something, or that it would at least be worth a small farewell. When Lance finally internalizes that Keith was gone and that, for the foreseeable future, he would never come back, he then starts to beat himself up for not realizing the signs.

Keith had obviously been irritated and erratic the day before he had disappeared. He had also been called into the main office during the middle of lunch. When Lance had seen him after their classes had ended for the day, Keith was clearly in a sour mood. Lance knew better than to pry— based on prior experience, it would have annoyed Keith more. Now, Lance regrets not talking to Keith about what was bothering him. Maybe, just maybe, he could have stopped him from leaving. Maybe, even if he was not able to convince Keith not to leave, he could have said his final goodbyes— see-you-laters, if Lance would allow himself to be hopeful. 

Coupled with the distraught of losing Keith, Lance is also angry at the Galaxy Garrison. How could they have lost a student in the middle of the night? More importantly, however, how could they brush it off like nothing had happened? Merely days after Keith disappears, Lance’s new roommate moves in— Hunk Garrett. And Lance, Lance cannot bring himself to hate Hunk despite him so easily replacing Keith like Keith was just a number in a system. Hunk is kind— he realizes that Lance is grieving and merely comforts him. Lance cannot hate Hunk because he knows that he did nothing wrong— he did not force Keith to leave nor did he intentionally take his place. Hunk is not there to fill the void Keith made, he is there merely because he has to be. No one wants to be placed in a room with a tumultuous teen who has just lost someone close to him.

Out of everything that has happened, however, Lance cannot forgive himself for never confessing to his first love. 

Lance lives with the regret of never telling Keith his true feelings. Most days, he finds himself dreaming of what could have happened between him and Keith. Lance is sure Keith would have returned the same feelings towards him, though the tiny voice of doubt in his heart taunts him with words. They had spent nights talking endlessly about anything and everything. Lance knew Keith like he was the back of his hand, and Keith was the same with Lance. They knew each other’s deepest fears— being alone, for the latter, and losing someone he loved, for the former. The two could easily read each other’s thoughts, even knowing when the other was upset without a single word from the said person. There was an undeniable connection between the two, yet Lance could barely comprehend the fact, everyday, he would no longer see Keith anymore.

Without Keith, the days seem to blend into each other and Lance cannot seem to focus on anything. All he thinks of is Keith— where he is, how he is doing, or if he even misses Lance. From being one of the best in class, Lance drops down to average. It does not matter though— most things do not matter to Lance. He barely has the will to keep going on. There is a Keith-shaped hole in Lance’s heart that he cannot seem to fill. Yet, Lance pushes on for his family. His family worked hard for him to get into the Galaxy Garrison and, while he may be reckless, he is not reckless enough to throw away something his family slaved over. Lance lives life haphazardly, mind filled with thoughts of Keith and nothing much else.

Lance is barely on the cusp of seventeen when his best friend disappears. Distraught and bitterness cloud his mind with endless possibilities of how love could have been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the second chapter of chasing fire!! Feedback would highly be appreciated <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading chapter one of chasing fire!! I hope to upload the second chapter sooner rather than later.


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